The present invention relates to a bag for liquid solutions that are mixable with active substances available in a separate form, in particular in powder or gel, for forming liquid medicinal or liquid substances that are administrable to patients through internal instillation.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In hospital environments, there is often a need to administer to patients, by internal instillation, medicinal and nutritional substances of different kinds that are made available separately, in particular in powder or gel, inside suitable sealed bottles.
In order to make the active substances suitable for instillation in liquid form it is necessary to form a mixture that comprises, in addition to the active substance, a basic liquid solution that acts as a solvent.
This basic liquid solution is usually available inside a flexible bag, from the base of which there extend a mixing tube with a connecting terminal for a container of active substance and a dispensing tube with a connecting terminal for a catheter, both provided with respective frangible caps and with possible closing clamps.
A connection for a syringe for dosing the quantity of active substance to be mixed with the basic liquid solution is sometimes associated with the mixing tube.
The dispensing tube can be provided with a press-fit type terminal or with a screw-type terminal for the connection and fixing thereof to a catheter or the like that is suitable for administrating the mixed substance inside the body of the patient. This entails the availability, inside the treatment facility, of two distinct sets of bags, one with a dispensing tube that is couplable with a press-fit coupling, the other that is couplable with a screw fit coupling, with the consequent need of double availability of storage space and an equally double financial investment.
The object of the present invention is to overcome this drawback by making a bag that is suitable for both the types of aforementioned coupling.
This object is achieved with a flexible bag that is partially filled with a basic liquid solution and has a first end closure from which a mixing tube extends that is provided with a frangible closure cap and with a terminal that is suitable for the connection of a container of active substance to be mixed with the basic liquid solution and a second end closure from which two dispensing tubes provided with respective frangible closure caps extend, a first dispensing tube having a press-fit type terminal and a second dispensing tube having a screw-type terminal.
It is clear that the bag according to the invention completely overcomes the drawback exposed above because the two dispensing tubes of different type make the bag suitable for connection to both a press-fit type catheter and to a screw-type catheter.
It should be further noted that, as the mixing tube extends from the opposite end of the bag to the two dispensing tubes, once mixing has been performed after connection of the container of active substance and breaking of the frangible closure cap it is sufficient to connect the bag in an upturned position in order for the formed mixture to remain by gravity inside the bag even in the absence of a closing clamp of the mixing tube. The force of gravity will then enable the mixture to be dispensed through the appropriate dispensing tube once the dispensing tube has been connected to the destination catheter and once the corresponding frangible cap has been broken.